MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Reported cases of dengue in the Americas nearly tripled to a record high of over 12.6 million this year, including 21,000 severe cases and over 7,700 deaths, the Pan American Health Organization said on Tuesday.
This year’s outbreak of dengue, the most common mosquito-borne disease worldwide, is the biggest since records began in 1980, according to the PAHO, which urged stronger mitigation efforts.
The deadly viral illness has hit Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico especially hard, with the four Latin American nations accounting for 90% of cases and 88% of deaths, according to a PAHO statement.
Children are at elevated risk of contracting dengue and suffering its more severe consequences.
In Guatemala, children represent 70% of dengue-related deaths, while those under age 15 make up more than a third of severe cases in Mexico, Costa Rica and Paraguay, PAHO data shows.
The organization, the Americas arm of the U.N.’s World Health Organization, notes that climate events across the region have favored mosquito proliferation, while also citing accumulated water and poor waste management as factors that boost breeding of the insects that carry and spread dengue.
Some 4 billion people, or around half the world’s population, live in areas with a risk of contracting dengue, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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